Bloomberg TV: Apple Design and Innovation

Director of Research and Interaction Design Rob Tannen appeared on Bloomberg TV’s Market Makers the day after the 2013 Apple Worldwide Developers Conference keynote revealing the new iOS 7 user interface. The co-hosts asked Tannen to discuss the present and future of Apple design. He cited the company’s game-changing Mac Pro Desktop as evidence Apple has not lost its edge.

Tannen also pointed out the misperception that Apple is a design leader when it comes to new product types. “If you look at their most successful products, they’re not the first in their categories,” he says. “They’re applying their talent at design innovation to redefine categories rather than invent new ones.”

He gave a nuanced assessment of the controversial new user interface. “There has been speculation [Apple] moved to a flatter design because of the changes Microsoft and Google have made,” Tannen tells Market Makers’ co-hosts. “In other words, they’ve become a follower rather than a leader. But if you look at the interface, it is flat but layered so it does have the best of the simplistic two-dimensional design as well as the wow effects of the 3D design.”